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Vermeer's Hat: The seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world
 
 
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Vermeer's Hat: The seventeenth century and the dawn of the global world (Hardcover)

by Timothy Brook (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £18.99
Price: £13.29 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Profile Books (3 Jul 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 184668112X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846681127
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 65,586 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #11 in  Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Styles & Movements > Baroque
    #28 in  Books > Art, Architecture & Photography > Architecture > By Chronology > Baroque to Neo-Classicism: 1600-1800

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Product Description

Review
"In a remarkable book Vermeer's magical paintings become windows that reveal how daily life - from Delft to Beijing - was transformed. 'Brook takes his readers on a journey that encompasses Chinese porcelain and beaver pelts, global temperatures and firearms, shipwrecked sailors, silver mines and Manila galleons. A book full of surprising pleasures.' - Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China 'A more entertaining guide to world history is difficult to imagine.' Ross King, author of Brunelleschi's Dome 'An absolutely wonderful idea, beautifully executed.' Tom Standage, author of A History of the World in Six Glasses"

Book Description
In a remarkable book Vermeer’s magical paintings become windows that reveal how daily life – from Delft to Beijing – was transformed.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking, 24 Jul 2008
By Paul Callick (manchester) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Simply, a beautiful and breathtaking book. Full of marvels and curiousities, each chapter opens out to show the wider maps and ideas we thought we knew about...small details from the paintings are peered closely at, and behind them the seventeenth-century world of travel and trade, narrated through human encounters and stories. He writes wonderfully well and with such clarity about often complex issues, effortlessly moving the focus and scene from place to place: so there's a lovely rhythm about the book as he paces the (frequent) surprises subtly and narrates them with a drole and deceptively easy style. I started to read the other day and was still sat there seven hours later, transfixed by it, slowing up the pace of reading, not wanting it to end.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A New Perspective, 25 Jul 2008
This book is an interesting new perspective in Vermeer studies, looking at the objects in his paintings from the point of view of the expanding trade networks of the 17th century. It is engagingly written and he wears his scholarship lightly.

I was disappointed the author did not investigate Vermeer's famous blue colour (anachronistically called "cobalt blue" in the book), since the ultramarine would itself have come from a complex trade network, and how it came to Delft would itself have made quite a story.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars It didn't sparkle, 24 April 2008
By Martin (Cumbria, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World (Hardcover)
I was a little disappointed in this book. Although its concept sounded very interesting the narrative was a bit flat.

The chapters concentrated on one particular object in a painting such as a beaver hat and then went on to explain where that object was most likely to have come from and some background history about, for example, the beaver trade. Unfortunately, the author tended to go on at length about one particular character or location for page after page of a chapter, barely referred back to Vermeer or Delft and, for most chapters, lost my interest.

I also felt cheated by the fact that although the book was trailed as a book about Vermeer's paintings separate chapters were included about works not involving Vermeer's paintings so that the author could discuss immigration into Holland and smoking.

Admittedly I did learn something about Vermeer and a few interesting facts about seventeenth century life but overall I thought the reviews I had read in newspapers were too generous.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous
This is a wonderfully well written text that uses items featured in Vermeer's paintings to provide a highly informative and fascinating account of trade and exploration in the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by D. P. Mankin

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